Naresh Kumar Vaid, Director , Vaids ICS

Interview for any job is meant to test the suitability of personality of an individual for that particular job. The interview is conducted by a set of experts from various fields with, more often than not, the presence of a psychologist. The Personality Test (as it should aptly be called) the interview of civil services aspirants is meant to test the qualities of aspirants and their suitability as an administrator. Here, we must hasten to add that with maximum score of merely 300 for interview out of a total maximum of 2300 (including 2000 of the written exam held in Oct/Nov. every year), it may not make much difference to those who are expectng a very high score in the Written (and actually get it though the score of written examination is not known till the time final results are out). But, for those at the bottom of the merit list, interview may improve their chances of success following certain guidelines . What is Personality Students of psychology will hand over a list of...

TODAY perhaps the worst day of UPA II government. Since independence, for the first time the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of one of the top most constitutional posts. The Court declared illegal the appointment of Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Mr. PJ Thomas on a number of grounds. THOMAS, a former secretary in the ministry of telecom, was appointed CVC disregarding the norms set for the post again by the Court. THE institution of CVC was established by an order of the Supreme Court according to which CVC is appointed by a high power committee comprising of the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. The first CVC Mr. N. Vitthal was appointed by NDA government in 1998. The government selected the panel of three candidates and the leader of opposition Mr. Sharad Pawar was given the opportunity to tick any of the three names. But in the case of Thomas, the government was adamant on appointing him disregarding the objections of Mrs Swaraj,...

I HAVE never been a fan of India's foreign policy from the days of Pt. Nehru. I believe that India has only one policy in all spheres (including foreign affairs) and that is 'take it easy ' policy. There are many duds in Manmohan Singh's cabinet and SM Krishna seems to be one of them. THE Minister has a consistent reply to all the issues put to him, ' We are talking '. When Indian students in Australia were suffering from racist attacks, he had warned the media that raising the issue in public may jeopardize relations with Australia. When Indian students have been harassed and detained illegally in the TV University fraud in the US, he took up the matter only when it was highlighted by the media. Till date many students are suffering and there is no solution to the issue. The expressions on his face, while talking about the incident were such as if he is helpless and subordinate to the US. (Do you remember the photograph of Manmohan Singh standing along with Ob...

PRANABDA presented his Budget II of UPA II yesterday, again dedicating it to aam aadmi . It is a different matter that the budget is prepared in consultation with big business houses and aam aadmi is never approached to know his expectations from this annual exercise. There has been a lot of media hype about various entitlements therein and yet some more serious thought is required. Before I begin, let me add that the sensex that measures the trust and expectations of market players, has given thumbs up. FIRST, the subsidies have been cut by about 15,000 crore rupees, direct taxes have been slashed by more than 11,000 crore rupees while indirect taxes have been raised by almost the same amount. All of us know that a cut in subsidies and raise in indirect taxes affect the poor more while reduction in direct taxes benefits the rich. SECOND, the raise in the income tax limit from 1,60,000 rupees to 1,80,000 rupees has been highlighted by the media. Here we must know that only 3% Indians...